We Both Go Down Together
by sullarco
Summary: danny/vlad drabbles/twitfics.
1. Tipsy

The offer was somewhat unexpected.

Danny had been trying his hardest to avoid Vlad and honestly it was pretty easy not to run into him in the halls of his Wisconsin castle. Every now and then Vlad would see him and attempt some kind of banter to set their lives into a sense of normalcy again. His quips about Danny's unbrushed hair or the shirt he hadn't bothered to change out of for three days (because what did it matter anymore?) was really getting on Danny's nerves.

There was an evening where he found Vlad coming towards him down one of the castle's immaculate halls. Danny expected him to say something condescending, but instead Vlad gave the smallest of grins and lifted what was in his hands a little higher for Danny to see clearly.

"Care for a drink?" was the offer Danny had not been expecting. He eyed the bottle of wine in one hand and the pair of glasses in the other. The sight of alcohol being offered to him made him nervous, and his face grew hot because of it.

"I'm not allowed to drink." He said, bypassing a clever remark. It clearly was not the place or time for that and truthfully Danny was tired of it.

Vlad laughed, "Come now Daniel, you're with me, you're nearly an adult, you can have a little bit of wine."

Danny followed him to a big unnecessary room with a tall plush chair and a small couch beside it. They both faced a fireplace which Vlad started up after he handed the wine and glasses to Danny. Danny stared at the items uncertainly, but it was just wine, it wasn't like he was going to get roaring drunk like in movies. Wine couldn't get him too drunk right? Well in any case it was unlikely _Vlad_ would let him drink very much anyway.

When Vlad took the bottle and glasses back, Danny settled on the couch, watching him. He poured Danny's glass first, a little below halfway, and handed it to him. Danny stared down at the red wine and sniffed it before he raised the glass to his lips and took a sip. It was smooth, but a little bitter. Danny turned his head to Vlad, wondering if he'd noticed the face he'd made.

The bottle had been set on the floor, and Vlad's attention was on the fireplace, his glass cradled in his lap. His hair was a little messier than a few moments ago, and he looked very tired. Danny glanced around the room and imagined Vlad coming down here at night while Danny sulked in his room. In his chair with a glass of wine, lost in his own thoughts, alone. Truly alone.

Hadn't that been what Danny was doing to him all these weeks? Leaving Vlad to be alone?

Danny took another sip of the drink in his hands again, testing out a bigger taste now that he'd had his first sample. It was better this time now that he'd already tried it. He was used to the sweet taste of soda; it wasn't bad it was just different.

"How is it?"

Vlad's question startled him into sitting up a little bit straighter, and he smiled sheepishly. "Fine."

"You don't have to drink it if you don't want to."

"I want to!" Danny protested, and drank the small amount that was left. It was probably a bad idea considering he'd never had alcohol at all before, and he had no idea was his tolerance for it was. Vlad chuckled and picked up the bottle from the floor, holding it out to refill Danny's glass a little bit.

Now and then Vlad tried to pick up a little bit of conversation between them, so it wasn't so quiet, or maybe for another reason, but his attempts always fell flat. Every time Vlad tried to ask him what he'd been up to or how he was getting along by himself, Danny took a drink to occupy his mouth.

As Vlad refilled his third glass saying, "Last one, little badger." Danny could feel himself getting dizzy. He leaned over the arm of the chair to look at Vlad who looked right back at him.

"That's a really dumb name." Danny grinned. "It only barely makes sense."

"I've never heard you complain about it before."

"Well, I've never really thought about it before. You're always saying it condescendingly, or calling me Daniel. No one calls me Daniel."

"I can stop." Vlad said. He set down his wine glass on the other side of his chair where he wouldn't kick it over. "Calling you Daniel, if you really prefer for me to call you Danny."

"N-no it's okay. Only you can call me Daniel. But you can use Danny sometimes. On special occasions." Danny stood up and wobbled, reaching out to steady himself against the couch. "Woah." He laughed, "I think I'm a little bit... um..."

Vlad let out a small laugh in reply. He took in the flush on Danny's face and his tiny smile, "Just a little tipsy, of course."

Danny nodded at this and took a step past the couch toward's Vlad's chair. "It feels good though." He said. "I feel warm. I feel... happy. I feel like I'm forgetting something but... it doesn't really matter." Danny pushed his glass into Vlad's hand, not really wanting or caring to hold onto it anymore. "I'm a little dizzy though."

Vlad looked down at Danny, reaching out to support him. "Good dizzy or bad dizzy?"

Danny thought about this for a bit before his little smile turned into a lopsided grin. "Good dizzy." He decided. Danny leaned into him and laughed again, "It's hard to do stuff. When you're dizzy." He tried to straighten himself but almost tripped over his shoes. "That's okay though cause you're looking out for me."

Vlad grabbed onto Danny's arm and turned him around to face the door. He set down the wine glass Danny had handed him and led Danny out into the hallway. The air was cool without the heat of the fireplace and he felt Danny shiver with the change in temperature.

The hallways seemed a lot longer like this, when he was distracted with the warm and pleasant feeling in his head, and the firm grip on his arm. It was easier to focus on walking without tripping over himself with Vlad holding onto him; steering him. They finally got to the room Danny had been occupying the last few weeks. It was warmer than the hallways but the blankets on the bed seemed even more inviting that usual. He sort of didn't want to go to sleep though. "If I go to sleep." He said aloud for Vlad to hear, "I'm not going to feel good in the morning."

"You'll be fine, little badger." Vlad said in reply as he slipped off Danny's sneakers. "I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even have a headache."

"Well there's that." Danny sighed heavily. "But tomorrow I'm going to remember what I forgot. I'm going to feel bad. I don't like feeling bad. I liked feeling good. I liked being in that room. With you. With the good feeling." Vlad didn't say anything but Danny didn't look at him. He was staring at the canopy above his bed. When did he lay down. "I haven't been trying to make myself feel good. you've been trying, and I've been avoiding you."

At this Vlad turned Danny over onto his side to sleep and managed to get some blankets over him. "Hopefully my next attempt will not require the wine." He said.

"Me too."


	2. Relief

"At least you were close to the ones you loved. They loved you, Daniel."

Vlad scowled at him from across the room, and Danny began to take small steps towards him. There was a weight that shifted with those words, and placed itself firmly in between his organs and twisted them. Even when he was face to face with the man who Danny had once thought of as his enemy, who had honestly helped him these past few weeks despite all of Danny's protests and backtalk, Vlad continued to scowl at him; on the end of a rope with Danny at this point.

Danny let those words repeat in his head over and over, guilt, and the realization of the grief his attitude had been causing Vlad all this time since the accident. Danny's fingers touched the fabric of Vlad's suit hesitantly before they looped around and hooked behind his back. Vlad was tense for a full ten seconds before his hands settled gently on Danny's shoulders. He just held on, not quite sure what to do now that he was actually in this situation where Danny was hugging him. He'd imagined what it might feel like after the near miss at his cabin in the rockies.

A part of him had thought he'd never feel this in his lifetime.

He leaned his head down and his nose touched Danny's hair. "I want to cry." He said in a heave of breath.

Danny almost laughed and Vlad felt the movement in his chest. "I've never really thought of you to be sad and cry." Danny confessed.

"I have been sad for more than half of my life, little badger. Right now I'm...relieved."


	3. Sink

It was hard to think when there was a solid weight on top of him, pressing Danny's body into the plush cushions of the couch. The heat that flushed Danny's face gave him a headache, and his toes curled inside his socks when the new distraction of a tongue pushing inside his mouth licked at each of his teeth. He breathed hard through his nose, trying to concentrate, and having a difficult time of it. He felt himself sinking slowly until his head hit the armrest.

Danny broke away in a gasp and looked down at his arms that disappeared into the couch. Vlad's forehead rested against Danny's and he smirked down at the sight. "Well, isn't that interesting."


	4. Nervous

"You can close your eyes if you need to. I don't sound as old as I look."

Danny didn't need to, didn't want to exactly, but his eyes closed anyway in distraction. He was too focused on the fluttering in his stomach and the quickening of his heartbeat to do anything more than run on autopilot. "Its not that." Danny said tightly.

"Are you nervous?" Vlad asked.

The question made him even more nervous but he tried ignore that. "A little bit." Danny admitted. "I kissed Sam before, but it was different, then . I was caught off guard; I didn't have time to think about kissing her she just... /was/ suddenly and-"

Danny's head jerked back a little when he felt the pressure of a kiss against his mouth, but Vlad's hand held him in place on the nape of his neck. Not pushing him or keeping him there, exactly, just steadying him. Danny had been kissed a grand total of one time and it was over before he could even register that it happened, and right now he was definitely registering what was happening.

He moved his lips hesitantly and he could feel the dumb smirk on Vlad's face, like it was all very amusing about how little experience Danny had in this situation. But at the same time Vlad was very patient to let Danny adjust. To get used to the idea of What To Do and How To Kiss.

Until he gently bit Dannys bottom lip, and the boy inhaled sharply and turned his head away.


	5. Wants

Vlad shifts uncomfortably, Danny on his waist, tries to hold him still so the boy won't move backwards and feel his shame. His eyes darken just slightly, Danny's confident expression starting to piss him off, and maybe that's the point. "What is going on with you, Daniel?" There being an attempt to sound intimidating (upset, angry, anything!) but mostly he's just conflicted, confused. "What do you want from me!"

Danny stares for the longest moment; considering, perhaps. His eyes droop just the slightest bit and his smirk makes Vlad more nervous than ever. Finally Danny leans in the tiniest bit closer and whispers to him, "I want you to fuck me."


	6. Unkie Vlad

Danny smirked, and the hand the boy placed on Vlad's waist was different; unfamiliar and intimate. There was a heat that burned through Vlad, his attempts to squash it down and cover it firmly with a label marked Wrong were destroyed when Danny pressed up against him. It was still the oddest feeling to know Danny wanted him, /really/ wanted him, whereas Vlad had been crushing those feelings away for so long.

There was a distinction in his head; teasing and fighting (training) the boy, fine. Touching and kissing (fucking) the 14 year old? Warning signals went off in his head, and Danny gently pressed his lips to Vlad's, tauntingly chaste.

Despite all of his reservations, Vlad found himself chasing those lips as they pulled away.

"See? Kissing me's not so bad, is it, Unkie Vlad?"

Vlad blanched at the sarcastic nickname and some part of him told him to move away, but Danny held him close with both hands now.

"Daniel, please, not while we're- you can't possibly think that while we're... in this situation."

There was a look in Danny's eyes as his face grew red to the tips of his ears that Vlad wasn't sure he wanted to think too hard about.


	7. Wound

He sat Vlad down inside the lab before searching for supplies he needed. Danny didn't know Vlad's lab like he knew his parents', everything was… well, organized, so he had trouble finding things. Namely, medical supplies. Vlad wobbled in his chair, eventually slumping over and choking out a sob when his head hit the metal table.

There was ectoplasm caked into his hair and along the side of his face, wet and dripping down his chin and onto the floor. Danny knelt beside him and tried to sit him upright again. He unattached Vlad's heavy cape and let it drop to the ground while he focused on the wound. Danny was used to cleaning his own ectoplasm wounds, so he worked quickly and methodically to patch up the man. After the major gash was taken care of, he tried wiping the sickly pink out of Vlad's hair and off his cheek, but it was stubborn and mostly smeared with just the measly towel Danny had grabbed.

"Thank you, Daniel." Vlad grinned. His eyes were drooping from exhaustion and the bags under his eyes made him look older than ever.

"You can probably change back now." Danny said quietly. Obviously the thought hadn't occurred to Vlad. He was acting strange, but Danny didn't know how to fix that part. It was part of something he couldn't see, couldn't just slap a bandage over.

"Oh yes, of course." Vlad chuckled, and did so. There was still ectoplasm on his face, but under the bandage around Vlad's head, he could see the wound go from bright pink to deep red. Vlad laughed, it seemed almost a struggle, but it was deep and real, "I guess heroes don't pick and choose who they're going to save, do they Daniel?" He leaned closer and closer, and Danny was sure Vlad was going to kiss him, but the man's eyes closed and he slumped into Danny. The ectoplasm smeared onto Danny's cheek and neck and all down the front of his suit as Vlad failed to hold himself up. He breathed lightly, unconscious.

Danny tried to force his blush to go away, pushing Vlad away from him and setting him to lean onto the table once again, careful not to jostle his head too much. He wasn't sure if it was safe to let Vlad sleep with a head wound, but maybe ten minutes wouldn't hurt before he woke him up.


	8. Pressure

Kissing was great and all; Danny usually couldn't get enough of it. He'd push Vlad against the back of the couch, or onto the bed, or anywhere he could keep Vlad in one place and concentrate at the same time. He'd nip at Vlad's lips and lick his way into Vlad's mouth and run his tongue against the roof and each of Vlad's teeth.

Danny had learned to breath through his nose and could go a pretty long time without having to stop. Sometimes (all the time) it was like a game, and he almost always won. Today his jaw was tired and his lips felt bruised but he didn't want to stop. He kissed underneath Vlad's hear where he felt stubble and kissed his way to the spot between Vlad's neck and shoulder. He thought about attempting a hickey. He'd never given one to Vlad but it would probably be hilarious.

He kissed first, and then licked, and he closed his teeth over the spot and froze when Vlad groaned. Danny almost burst out laughing. Of course Vlad would have some weird vampire kink, he basically looked like one in his ghost form. Closing his eyes, Danny bit down again, harder, hard enough he thought he might break the skin. He moved a little lower and repeated the action.

He pulled back and he could see where his teeth made indents in the skin, rubbed his thumb over a spot on Vlad's collarbone. Danny positioned again, his teeth biting down, and he almost felt silly, basically gnawing on Vlad's neck. Vlad had a grip on his waist and he tightened it briefly as he said, "Go ahead." In a whisper.

There was a moment of hesitation before Danny increased the pressure, until he tasted blood.


	9. Thermos

Danny had been stuck in the thermos before; it made him claustrophobic, uncomfortable psychologically. He knew Jazz would get him out as soon as she could, but he was now stuck in it with Vlad. It was cramped, yeah, but usually Danny had an okay time getting an adjustment that didn't hurt his neck; but Plasmius was taking up more than twice as much space. He was older, bigger, and he kept shifting around. It annoyed Danny at first. He'd said, "Better get comfortable, Plasmius, Jazz is terrible at working the thermos."

Vlad seemed to sense Danny's unease with being inside the thermos, especially with him, and began talking. He spoke casually of his how his latest plan would have gone had it been not for Jazz. He complimented Danny's improving aim, however backhanded it seemed to be, and asked after his friends. Danny refused to be a part of a conversation, but it was hard not to focus on Vlad's voice in the tiny space. He barely even remembered where they were, and a smile appeared on his face when he realized Vlad was trying to distract him, trying to give Danny all the space he could, even if it meant his own discomfort.

Eventually Jazz did get the release button to work. Danny found himself in the ghost zone '_because of Vlad_' his mind supplied. Vlad brushed off invisible wrinkles from his uniform, offered some meaningless insult, and flew off.

Danny found himself missing the space in the thermos, where Vlad offered comforts instead of insults.


	10. Protect

Ectoplasm flowed freely from Danny's nose when he was able to lift his head from the pavement. It was just an added bonus to the already pounding ache from the side of his head where he could feel it gooey and dripping down the side of his face, in his ear. Vlad had all but disappeared, and Danny didn't know if he could keep this up. He wasn't sure if the pain he felt in his ribs were real, or a phantom effect. He wasn't sure if he would stay conscious for the next hit. He wasn't sure he could do this anymore.

Danny faced his foe head-on, bracing himself for the next attack, his entire body tense. He was only vaguely aware of the movement on his right, until Vlad was completely in his line of sight. He approached almost slowly, stiffly, his arm reaching out protectively, a gesture used to protect a loved one from harm. Vlad looked as if he could barely keep himself upright; his suit was wrecked and torn, a cut on his temple poured blood into his swollen eye, his nose broken, and yet he stood firmly between Danny and the source of danger.

"Stay behind me, Daniel." His voice cracked as he said so but he did not falter. Danny's first instinct was to retort, but he found he could barely even breathe. Danny had thought he was in so much pain he couldn't take one more blow, yet here Vlad was, unable to even maintain his ghost form, and he had placed himself in the line of fire. If the man before him trembled, it was not in fear.

Suddenly, behind Vlad and staring at the back of his suit jacket, Danny felt very small.

The ghost opposing them advanced quickly, much too quickly for its size, and brings itself down onto Vlad. He brought his arms up as his defense, and the weight made his spine arch, his knees bend low, and Danny flinched at the sick snap of bones breaking. There was a sound in the air, belatedly, Danny recognized that Vlad was screaming. Bursting to action, Danny charges forward. He wasn't as strong as Vlad, but there was no way he was going to stand behind the man and watch him crumble. He could do this. He wasn't weak, he'd defeated hundreds of ghosts, he'd faced worse than this before. The pain was a dull memory with the rush of adrenaline. Danny was on autopilot, and he had the upperhand of confidence instead of hopelessness. He barely had to concentrate.

He thought of later. He would help fix Vlad up. Wipe the blood from his forehead. Press ice to his bruised cheek. He wasn't sure what he could do about broken bones (but whatever he didn't know, Vlad did).

He would apologize.

Danny now had Vlad's expression burned into his head, something frightening about it made Danny choke. And how blind had he been to have never recognized that expression before. The eyes of a man who wanted to protect Danny more than his own life.


	11. Awake

They have drifted apart since the middle of the night. Danny, because he is, essentially, a sleeping human furnace; and Vlad, because he has been sleeping alone his entire life, and he's not sure his body knows what else to do with itself with another person in its sleeping space.

The mattress below him feels strange, more comfortable, feels newer than he knows it is. His arm drifts over to the empty middle of the bed between them, before it dawns on him. He has never once had to pick a side of the bed to sleep on. Day after day he has slept in the middle of the bed, so much so that he can now see a faint indent where the mattress usually holds his body.

Vlad doesn't quite realize he's been crying until it has woken Danny up, and the boy moves over to him. To his side of the bed. Cradles his head, soothes his scalp, exists.


End file.
